Geography
Reinventing NGOs and rethinking alternatives in the Andes
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Many Latin American nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) emerged as part of a movement committed to the idea of an alternative development that would differ from the dominant exclusionary, top-down, and often repressive forms of development. Yet today, after two or three decades of work in rural development, NGO activities appear to have had relatively little impact on dominant conceptions of development. Indeed, in the current economic and policy context, many of their alternatives appear impractical or simply obsolescent, challenging them to rethink their ideas of viable forms of alternative development, and their roles in development. In addition, their own institutional crises require them to rethink the way in which they relate to other actors and the ways in which they finance themselves. This article considers how conceptions of alternative development might be refashioned and how NGOs are beginning to reinvent themselves in order to carry forward new notions of development alternatives. It closes with a discussion of the implications for foreign aid.
Publication Title
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Publication Date
1-1-1997
Volume
554
First Page
117
Last Page
134
ISSN
0002-7162
DOI
10.1177/0002716297554001008
Keywords
Latin America, nongovernmental organizations
Repository Citation
Bebbington, Anthony J., "Reinventing NGOs and rethinking alternatives in the Andes" (1997). Geography. 541.
https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_geography/541